Posterior cruciate ligament injuries.

We have studied 48 patients with posterior cruciate ligament injury and 14 knees from fresh frozen cadavers. A diagnosis of posterior cruciate ligament injury was made by the sag and posterior drawer signs and stress x-ray films, the latter being useful in the grossly swollen and multiple ligament-injured knee. For avulsion injury, surgical management gave the best results. Other isolated posterior cruciate ligament injuries did well conservatively. When posterior cruciate injury is part of a multiple ligament injury, the nature of the associated ligament injury and that of the posterior cruciate determine the type of treatment; the posterior cruciate ligament is not more important than other knee ligaments.